The local lawn bowler just missed out on advancing to the semifinals at the Bowl Canada Junior Championship in Etobicoke, Ont. this past weekend.

Gailey posted a 5-2 record in the men's singles competition and just failed to advance to the medal round due to a tiebreaker.

"I feel like I did bowl pretty well," said Gailey. "I'll admit that I really wasn't bowling at the top of my game for most of the year, so this tournament has really given me a lot of my confidence back. I feel like I've found my game again and I know I can bowl with these guys."

Gailey was hoping to win the junior provincial title in his last season of eligibility. Instead, he had a disappointing showing at provincials, but was right in the thick of the competition at nationals.

"Part of it might be because I didn't put as much pressure on myself as I did in the provincial tournaments," hypothesized Gailey. "I didn't burden myself with any expectations. I expected to bowl well, but I went in with the attitude that I would see what would happen."

Gailey and Ontario's Lucas Caldwell were both 5-2 and tied for second place in Pool A after their round robin, but Caldwell had nine set points in the round and Gailey had 8.5 set points.

"Even though I beat him, I still lost to him in the tiebreaker," said Gailey. "He had half of a set more than I did over the round robin. That's basically the difference between a won set and a tied set."

Following the junior nationals, the competitors formed pairs teams to take part in the Forster Lang Pairs competition.

Gailey paired with Alex LeBlanc from Ontario and continued his strong run of good bowling. Gailey and LeBlanc advanced to the final where they lost in an extra end to Jake Schuknecht from Ontario and Carter Watson from Regina. Schuknecht had just won under-25 Canadian men's junior championship.

"That (Forster Lang Pairs) tournament is mostly a fun tournament. The pressure is off and it's a nice couple of days to just relax," said Gailey.

Gailey will turn 19 in October so this is his last year of junior eligibility, but he is looking forward to making his under-25 debut next year.

"The junior under-25 nationals are in Saskatoon next year, so that's something I'm really looking forward to," said Gailey.